Story 219 - A Good Man Goes To War

In which the Doctor and Rory are determined to find Amy, and call upon a few old acquaintances to assist them. First the Doctor takes Rory, dressed in his Roman Centurion costume, to the 12th Cyberfleet, as it is believed the Cybermen who are monitoring this region of space may know where Amy is being held. To force the Cyber-Leader to cooperate, the Doctor blows up most of the Cyberships. A trader named Dorium Maldovar had been approached by the Eyepatch-wearing woman - Madame Kovarian - and Colonel Manton of the militaristic Church, asking for information on the Doctor's whereabouts. On their departure he decides to flee, not wanting to get caught between the Church and the Doctor, but finds the TARDIS waiting for him. In the London of 1888, a Silurian known as Madam Vastra has just returned from a mission which has put an end to the murders of the man known as Jack the Ripper. Vastra is a private investigator who occasionally helps the police. She had been woken from hibernation when the London Underground railway was being constructed, but the Doctor had stopped her from killing any humans she had encountered, and enabled her to live amongst them. Her servant, Jenny, informs her of a visitor, and she finds the TARDIS waiting in her drawing room. At the Battle of Zarusthra, in 4037, a Sontaran named Strax is working as a nurse. This is penance for the loss of his clone batch. He sees the TARDIS waiting for him, as the Doctor had been involved in him taking on this new role.
Rory goes to the Stormcage prison facility to enlist the help of River Song. However, on learning why he has come she declines to go with him - explaining that the day has come when the Doctor will finally know who she is. She also warns that the Doctor will never have risen so high, only to fall.

Amy, meanwhile, has given birth to a daughter, whom she has named Melody. She is being held in a base run by the Church on the remote asteroid known as Demons Run. Kovarian intends to take the baby away. The Church soldiers - Clerics - who guard the base have been joined by the Headless Monks. No-one is ever allowed to see under their hoods, and it is customary for some members of other churches to join the Monks whenever they cooperate. One of the Clerics, a young woman named Lorna, gives Amy a gift. It is a prayer leaf embroidered with the name of her child in the language of her people. Colonel Manton holds a mass meeting of all the base personnel, at which it has been agreed that the Headless Monks will allow themselves to be seen, as a show of faith in the alliance with the Clerics. They are quite literally headless. On uncovering one of the hoods, Manton is shocked to discover that it is the disguised Doctor. Elsewhere. Vastra and Jenny have overpowered some guards and taken over the control centre. They plunge the main hall into darkness and when the lights come back on the Doctor has vanished. This leads to confusion amongst the ranks as some Clerics open fire on the Monks, who retaliate with their laser swords. Manton finally restores order and has everyone drop their weapons. However, this is just what the Doctor wanted. The base is overrun by Silurian warriors and Judoon troopers, as space-going Spitfire aircraft take out the asteroids external defences. Strax takes Manton prisoner, as Kovarian attempts to flee the base with the baby. She is stopped by Rory, who is assisted by the pirate captain Avery and his son Toby, who have captured her escape ship.

Rory and Amy are reunited with their child. The Doctor forces Manton to leave the base along with his Clerics and the Monks, escorted by the Judoon. He promises to ensure the Colonel's reputation is destroyed. Rory is reminded of River's warning when Vastra tells the Doctor that his bloodless taking of Demons Run means he has never risen so high. Vastra accesses the base computer to try to find out why Kovarian and Manton had wanted Melody. She discovers that the child's DNA has been altered due to exposure to the Temporal Vortex. The baby had been conceived in the TARDIS after all. Kovarian had wanted someone who was part-Time Lord, whom she could weaponise. Strax has discovered that Lorna has stayed on the base. She tells the Doctor that she once seen and admired him as child, and only joined the Clerics as she thought it would give her the best chance of seeing him again. In Lorna's language, 'Doctor' means 'Warrior'. Scans of the base has shown that Kovarian's troops had all left, but Lorna points out that the Monks don't show up on scans as they aren't really alive. They have remained on the base, and begin to attack by killing the Silurian warriors. Dorium attempts to broker peace, but is decapitated. In the ensuing battle, Strax and Lorna are both killed, but the Monks are eventually defeated.

The Doctor receives a message from Kovarian who has managed to escape in the confusion, and she taunts him that she has really won. The Doctor works out what has happened and rushes to warn Amy. He is too late, as she discovers that her baby is just a Flesh avatar. Kovarian has the real Melody. After rising so high the Doctor has now fallen. Suddenly River Song appears. The Doctor is initially furious that she had failed to help, but she then explains why. The TARDIS translates Lorna's prayer leaf as 'Song' and 'River' instead of 'Melody' and 'Pond' - and Rory suddenly recalls the cryptic message Idris had left about the only water in the forest being the river. River Song is the baby Melody Pond grown up. The Doctor leaves alone - telling the shocked Amy and Rory that he will find their baby...

A Good Man Goes To War was written by Steven Moffat and was first broadcast on 4th June 2011.
It marked the end of the first half of Season 6, it having been decided to split the season to avoid the summer months when viewing figures always dipped.
The series had broken for several weeks over Christmas on some occasions during the Classic Era of the show, and it was often the case that the first story of the New Year would be described as the start of a new season, either in the Radio Times, or by the BBC continuity announcer. The production team never saw it this way.
It is significant for revealing the origins of River Song, and introduces some new characters who will go on to feature as semi-regulars - Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax (though at this point it was assumed that the latter had been killed). We also have the return of some recently seen characters - Avery and his son from The Curse of the Black Spot, and the space-going Spitfires from Victory of the Daleks. Dorium had appeared at the beginning of The Pandorica Opens, when River obtained her Vortex Manipulator. Dorium had also featured in this story's prequel, in which he did some business with the Monks (which is why he thinks they will listen to him when they are about to attack).
We also get cameos from the Silurians, Cybermen and the Judoon. The Headless Monks had been referred to once before, in The Time of Angels, when the Doctor and Amy visited their museum, the Delirium Archive.

On first viewing, one of the things which strikes you straight away is the sudden appearance of previously never even mentioned friends. When Russell T Davies needed to bring together an army to help the Doctor, he was able to call upon all the companions and their relatives since 2005 for the Children of Time, even managing to include a companion (Sarah Jane Smith) from the previous era who had already encountered Davros and the Daleks. Moffat doesn't have such a history to fall back on, and seems determined to avoid using elements from his predecessor's time, so is forced to make some new friends up. This just looks wrong. When the stakes are as high as they are here, you really expect Captain Jack at the very least to be called upon. We get some old monsters - but are denied a chance to see old companions.
The story is all set-up for the big reveal of River Song's true identity, but of course she is hardly in it - only appearing briefly at the beginning, and then at the conclusion. She's the child of Amy and Rory, conceived in the TARDIS (presumably on their wedding night). She was the little girl in the spacesuit, who we saw regenerate at the conclusion of the opening story of the series. What Kovarian's plan is, we don't yet know (spoilers - we won't really get the full picture for another two years). Viewers at the time were left with a long wait over the summer months to find out what happens next. Despite all these big revelations, a lot of fans think the best part of the episode is the pre-titles section, especially the scenes with Rory and the Cybermen.

Heading the guest cast we have Neve McIntosh returning as her third Silurian (Alaya, then Restac, and now Vastra), and Dan Starkey as his fourth Sontaran (Skorr, Skree, Jask and now Strax). They are joined by Catrin Stewart as Jenny, and together will later form the Paternoster Gang. Lorna is Christina Chong. Colonel Manton is Danny Sapani. High Bonneville and Oscar Lloyd return as Henry and Toby Avery, in a scene recorded during The Curse of the Black Spot - which is why they aren't seen to interact with anyone else. Simon Fisher-Becker returns as Dorium Maldovar, with a much fuller part to play. In order to set up the Church and its relationship with the Monks we have a gay couple - known as the Thin One and the Fat One. They provide some exposition and help introduce the Lorna character. The Thin One is played by Dan Johnston, and the Fat One by Charlie Baker, who was better known for stand up comedy at the time. There's an uncredited cameo for Mark Gatiss, voicing the Spitfire pilot as he previously did on Victory of the Daleks.

Overall, a very good episode despite the lack of old companions. The group we do get are an entertaining bunch, and the story fairly rattles along.
Things you might like to know:

• The working title was "Demons Run", though "His Darkest Hour" was also considered. The episode actually went out as "Demons Run" in Germany.
• The title as broadcast comes from a poem - "Demons run, when a good man goes to war" as quoted by Dorium. We had earlier heard that River went to prison for killing a "good man". However, from Amy's opening narration, and its scenes showing only Rory, it is clear that the good man who goes to war is her husband, and not the Doctor.
• The Doctor isn't seen until his unmasking by Manton a considerable way into the episode - the longest period we have waited for the Doctor to appear in the revised series. (He doesn't appear until Scene 23).
• The end credits mention the Ood as well as the Judoon being created by Russell T Davies. This is because Ood Sigma was originally intended to have been part of the Doctor's gang.
• Moffat claimed that he did try to get John Barrowman to appear, but he was busy making Torchwood: Miracle Day at the time.
• There are no scenes set inside the TARDIS, which is significant only when you realise that every episode since Moffat took over has had at least one TARDIS interior scene.
• There's a Thunderbirds reference as Vastra's driver is named Parker, and is heard to say "Yes M'lady" as he's dismissed.
• River suggests that we get our word "doctor" from the Doctor - rather than him adopting the title from us. This was an idea first suggested by Moffat way back in 1995 on a fan internet forum.
• Strax originated with writer Gareth Roberts, in an unused script from an earlier season. A story called "Death to the Doctor" had featured a Sontaran named Strom who would not be typical of his race - a nurse like Strax - as it was felt there could be a lot of comedic potential in such a character.
• "Anniversary" episodes often included a reference to their number within their scripts - e.g. the bus in the 200th story having a 200 Route number, or the Crusader vehicle in Midnight being the Crusader 50, as it was the 50th episode of the revised series. A Good Man Goes To War is the 777th episode of Doctor Who (and was the 7th episode of the current series). You won't find any references to the number 7 in the story, however, as this was only realised afterwards. (Though we almost had a "Magnificent Seven" had River joined the Doctor and Rory as they hoped she would, or if Ood Sigma had appeared as originally planned).